We Did Rock You

No. 148: FREDDIE MERCURY, March 2012.
Click on individual photos to enlarge.

Everybody loves a showman. Most people get happy with hard volume. Everyone has done air guitar or played piano on a desktop at least once.
Admit it.

Freddie Mercury and Queen bring back good memories.
I remember freezing on Bus No. 2 on the way to Warren Western Reserve High School, and hearing "A Night At The Opera" and then "A Day At The Races" in the bus, which had an 8-track player.  Or, jamming to Queen II and Sheer Heart Attack with a neighbor buddy who just got a cool new stereo.
I remember blasting "One Vision" on a Saturday when I worked alone as a reporter in Warren and being told by the restaurant owner next door to keep it down.

I was always more partial to the loud stuff:  "Tie Your Mother Down," "Hammer to Fall" and "I Want It All."  Freddie had great pipes and Brian May's guitar tone is so thick.
I also appreciated the art of "Bohemian Rhapsody," "Radio Ga-Ga" and "Innuendo."
What FLASH! Theater on vinyl.

Freddie will be added to the Wall of Heroes in my art and music space. I look at these faces -- some, like Freddie, gone -- and hear the music, and relive all of the chapters in my life: Where I was, who I was with and what was happening when "that song" played.  It's "A Kind of Magic."  Another killer Queen song.

Walk the Wall of Heroes with me now. Where were you?

DAVID(s) GILMOUR

JIMI HENDRIX

JOE STRUMMER

JOHNNY CASH

KEITH RICHARDS

PETE TOWNSHEND

BOB DYLAN

ELVIS PRESLEY

FRANK ZAPPA

BOB SEGER

GLIMMER TWINS

TODD RUNDGREN

TOM WAITS

THE WHO

ARETHA FRANKLIN

BILL NELSON

GEORGE HARRISON

HANK and HANK JR.

JIMMY PAGE

EDDIE VAN HALEN